FEBRUARY LOOKAHEAD
National Post’s Paul Taunton previews what books readers can expect this February — a short month that should be long on page-turning
All Our Wrong Todays by Elan Mastai (Doubleday Canada, 384 pp; $32) – Feb. 7
Vancouver- born screenwriter Mastai ( The F Word) makes his fiction debut with a novel that posits an unsettling question: what would our world be like for someone from an alternate timeline, one with all the flying cars our past futurists thought we’d have? It would probably suck. But we’re not without our occasionally redeeming qualities ( you know, love, meaning, etc.) and once he finds them, Tom Barrens – just such a quantum leaper – will have to decide where he really wants to stay.
My Not So Perfect Life by Sophie Kinsella (Dial Press, 448 pp; 35$) – Feb. 7
Though best known for her Shopaholic series, Sophie Kinsella has authored another 15 books under her famous pseudonym as well as her own name, Madeleine Wickham (her middle name really is Sophie, though). In her latest standalone, My Not So Perfect Life, a thwarted Londoner retreats to her hometown, only for her city life – in the form of a former boss – to follow her there. More importantly, the Post’s Calum Marsh’s mother is Kinsella’s #1 fan.
The Lonely Hearts Hotel by Heather O’Neill (Harper-Collins, 400 pp; $32.99) – Feb. 7
Two- time Giller finalist and Canada Reads winner Heather O’Neill returns with her unique ability to evoke both the glamour and the grittiness of the Montreal underworld. Set between the wars, The Lonely Hearts Hotel is the story of two orphaned s ong- and- dance prodigies who enchant the dreams of the rich, but find their true calling in each other.
Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders (Random House, 368 pp; $37) – Feb. 14
Though Saunders has staked his place at the forefront of American letters through his inimitable short stories and novellas, the literary world is abuzz about his ambitious first full-fledged novel. From a single historical prompt – the death of Abraham Lincoln’s third son William against the backdrop of the Civil War – Saunders’s novel blossoms into the very journey of a soul.
The Refugees by Viet Thanh Nguyen (Grove Press, 224 pp; $36.50) – Feb. 17
Viet Thanh Nguyen won the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for his novel The Sympathizer. His much anticipated collection of stories, The Refugees, explores the many facets of culture shock, identity, leaving home, returning home – and making a home. It’s both a timely work of fiction and an artistic retrospective of a community’s voyage over the decades.